"You want Frank's money?"
Guo Youde nodded: "Yes, yes, what we want is Frank's money... We don't want Indian money, we want Frank's!"
After hearing this, Wu Sidao didn't know what to say.
Why are the Ming Emperor's requests so strange?
It's easy to get money from India. Can't it be enough to wait for the Fourth Prince to "measure India's material resources and win the favor of Ming Dynasty" in order to become the emperor? But you want Frank's money... Brother Si can't make the decision in this matter!
In addition, why does the Ming Emperor not want Indian money? Indian money is also money. It is made of rupees made of gold and silver. Can it still be divided into castes?
Thinking of this, Wu Sidao shook his head: "Xiang Guo, but the Fourth Brother can't make the decision on Frank's matter! Moreover, Frank is a powerful country. When it comes to life and death, there are still millions of people with armor. Even the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia If we join forces, we may not be able to defeat Frank on his own territory... I’m afraid we won’t be able to get this money.”
"No," Guo Youde waved his hand and said with a serious face, "Who do you think the Holy Spirit is? Does he know how to steal people's money?"
"Isn't he?" Wu Sidao thought to himself, "Isn't he a bandit from Danan Mountain?"
Guo Youde added: "We in Ming Dynasty just want to do good business with Frank, and use Ming Dynasty's silk, cloth, porcelain, glass, tea, sugar, fine wine, perfume, and traditional Chinese medicine (allicin, nitroglycerin, and cinchona are all traditional Chinese medicine) ) were all sold to Frank, and Frank gained all his gold and silver."
Wu Sidao was stunned again and again, "Isn't this just a normal transaction?"
As he spoke, he thought about it: "How can a good business sound like a robbery? Is it because you have become accustomed to doing business without capital?"
Guo Youde explained: "Mr. Wu, I don't know what you are doing. This business seems normal to us, but it is not normal to the Franks...especially the income earned year after year, which has to be emptied out." them!"
Guo Youde said this, but he himself didn't quite understand, how could a good business turn into a drain?
It turns out that these words were taught to him by Zhu Heji, and he was not just a sounding board.
In fact, Zhu Heji's abacus was very precise and far-reaching. His plan was not for the next ten or eight years, but for the next hundred years!
Frank cannot afford a deficit of one or two years, or even ten or eight years. After turning the twelve British states of North America into French America, the Frankish Empire's national power had reached its peak. Although there are not many gold and silver deposits in the huge French-speaking America, they can obtain their gold and silver through trade with Spain and Portugal. The Portuguese colony of Brazil discovered large gold mines in 1694, thus opening up Brazil. The gold rush era. In its original history, Brazil could provide European colonists with half a million taels of gold (approximately fifteen tons) every year in just a few decades. According to the gold and silver price ratio at the time, the value of this gold was almost seven One and a half million Ming Dynasty silver coins! Taken together over several decades, there are hundreds of millions!
If you include the Spanish Empire's profits from the silver and gold mines in South America, the European gains from the New World are even more astonishing. In the three centuries of history, the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the amount of Spanish American silver that could be officially counted was as much as 100,000 tons, which is more than 3 billion taels!
The above are all official statistics. If you include the gold and silver smuggled out of the Americas (the Spanish government charges a tax of 50%, and Portugal charges a tax of 20%), under such high taxes, Private mining and smuggling are inevitable), and the number may have to be doubled!
A considerable part of this gold and silver will flow into the Frank Empire through various channels, so the Frank Empire is still rich!
But no matter how rich you are, you can't bear the huge deficit every year! A long-term deficit will not only cause a large outflow of gold and silver, but also cause a currency crisis in the Frankish Empire (Europe does not directly trade with gold and silver, gold and silver are just raw materials for minting coins. If there is a lack of gold and silver, the gold and silver content of the currency will decrease. ), and will gradually hollow out the industries of the Frank Empire, delay or even interrupt the industrialization process of the Frank Empire.
So when the problem of deficit and outflow of gold and silver reaches a certain level, Louis XIV or Louis XIV's heirs will definitely take some measures... just like the British Empire in history.
But "foreign medicine" will definitely not have a big market in the future Ming Dynasty... and there is no need for Lin Zexu to ban smoking. Emperor Zhu Da has already issued an order to control afurong drugs. And using force to open the Daming Market (Afurong Market) seems unthinkable now! Therefore, Emperor Zhu predicted that the future Frankish rulers would most likely treat Ming products with high tariffs and market bans.
Fortunately, he had taken precautions and came up with a plan to unite Mongolia, the Rakshasa Kingdom, and even the British East India Company, the Dutch East India Company, the Swedish East India Company, the Portuguese India Company, and even the Frankish East India Company to hollow out Frank!
In Emperor Zhu's plan, Ming Dynasty manufacturing...can be wrapped in the clothes of the above countries, colonies and chartered trading companies and exported to Frank!
"Mr. Wu," Guo Youde said to Wu Sidao, "Your Majesty estimates that if we keep taking money out of the pockets of the Franks every year, sooner or later the Frankish emperor will turn his back and stop doing business with us. So Your Majesty wants to make a deal with the Southern Mongolian people." The emperor and the Queen Mother of the West will do this business together, and if possible, bring the Northern Khan and the Queen Mother of the East into the business, and then find a way to bring in the Western East India Company and Portuguese India."
"How on earth is this deal going to be done?" Wu Sidao still didn't understand. Wu Sidao was a good hand in political intrigues, but he was really bad at doing business.
Guo Youde smiled and said: "Listen up, nanny, this is how this business is done... To put it simply, it is to package some of the goods produced in the Ming Dynasty into Mongolian, Rakshasa, East India Company and Portuguese Goods produced in India were then sold to Europe. Therefore, after King Niyong became the Southern Emperor, he had to build more free cities on the western coast of India, such as turning Diu, Daman or other port cities into free cities. . We can also join forces with the Governor-General of Portuguese India, the British East India Company, and the Dutch East India Company to set up free cities in Goa, Bombay, and Ceylon. If conditions are ripe, we can even set up free cities in Black Petrograd in the Rakshasa Kingdom. Set up a similar free city!
In this way, we will have more ways to export goods to Frank, and it will be more difficult for them to block it. Unless they close the country, they can't block everything! Mr. Wu, do you think this can be done? "
Wu Sidao thought about it and felt that this matter was nothing to Great Mongolia... After all, it was Frank's treasury that was going to be emptied, not Great Mongolia's. And it’s hard to say how far it can be emptied! Although Wu Sidao didn't understand business, he also knew that when there was less money in his pocket, he would live his life carefully. This is called living within one's means. This is true for every household, and it is true for most countries. If the Franks have less money, they will naturally not buy it. Maybe they will find a way to sell more things to Ming Dynasty. Isn't this how this business works?
Thinking of this, Wu Sidao nodded and said, "Okay! That's it!"
Guo Youde saw Wu Sidao agreeing so readily, so he smiled and said: "Okay, okay, let's discuss a secret agreement and finalize the specific method. He will ask Nalan Xingde to take the secret agreement in the name of attending the funeral of Kangxi Khan. Go to Great Mongolia and sign an agreement with Prince Yong... After signing the agreement, the Queen Mother of the West will give all the votes for the Confucian Eight Banners to Prince Yong, and Prince Yong will become the Southern Emperor!"
"Is Queen Mother Kong really that obedient?" Wu Sidao was a little surprised, so he asked back.
Guo Youde laughed and said: "How dare the Queen Mother of the West disobey the Holy Emperor? If she disobeys, she will not be the Queen Mother... Even the Suiye Mansion is not hers, and the Confucian Eight Banners will no longer support her. , maybe you can’t even save your life!”
...
Ninety-five Feilong Hall.
Zhu Heji Emperor Zhu had already enjoyed the service of the Western Queen Mother Kong Simin who "acted like a cow and a horse"... Although the beauty of the Queen Mother Kong could only be regarded as second-class in Zhu Heji's current harem. But she is the real Queen Mother, and having a Queen Mother is more meaningful than riding a Ocean Horse - this is for the country and the people!
And this matter is of great symbolic significance... Even the Queen Mother asked Emperor Zhu to handle it. This big liquidation was completely liquidated. This matter is comparable to the arrest of Puyi and the labor reform. Although there are still some remnants who have set up a sign of Great Mongolia, their ancestors have been replaced by Genghis Khan and no longer Nurhaci.
Zhu Heji, who had just "taken care of" the Queen Mother, was leaning on the back of a big bed to recharge his batteries. The Queen Mother Kong was held in his arms, saying something like "The emperor is mighty, and the servant is convinced." Kind of compliment.
"Amin," Zhu Heji listened to the compliments contentedly for a while, then interrupted by calling Queen Mother Kong by her nickname, "you are mine now, of course I must love you well..." .I heard Nalan Xingde said that your money is very tight, is this true?"
It was so rich that even the travel expenses were spent... But that is all in the past, and now the Queen Mother Kong has become a real rich man.
"It's nothing," Queen Mother Kong said with a smile, "The slave family is already a member of the Holy Sage, so how can money be tight?"
"Hahaha," Zhu Heji laughed, "That's right... but it's better to teach people how to fish than to teach them how to fish! After all, I am getting old, and you are still young. If you don't have any industry, you will be in trouble in the future. what to do?"
"Your Majesty, do you want to give the slave family some property? You are so kind to the slave family!" Queen Mother Kong raised her face and looked at the elderly Emperor Zhu Da with a smile.
Zhu Heji held his beard and said with a smile: "I do have a big deal with you. This is a real big deal, enough to feed Suiye Mansion and Ruba Banner for several generations!"
"What big deal?" Queen Mother Kong asked, blinking.
"finance!"
"Finance? What kind of business is this? How to do it?" Queen Mother Kong asked.
Zhu Heji said with a smile: "You don't have to understand this business, and you don't have to do it yourself... Just take the name and wait to get the money, and someone will naturally do it."
"Is there such a good thing?" Queen Mother Kong was a little doubtful - this was what Emperor Zhu said. If anyone else said it, she would not believe it one in ten thousand.
Zhu Heji said: "Amin, I won't lie to you. And I really need a small country that can remain neutral between all parties to manage the money earned through East-West trade... I want Let this money be turned into investment, and then transferred back to the West to buy land and real estate, so that they can have money to continue to buy our things. And those who are responsible for transferring money between the East and the West can also make real use of the money invested in Europe. The ones the master is hiding must be forces like Ruba Banner and Suiye Mansion."
It turns out that Zhu Heji wanted an Asian Switzerland to manage investments in Europe... This Asian Switzerland must be neutral on the surface, but in fact it must be considerate and controllable, and it must also allow Mongolia, Rakshasa Kingdom, and Frank to all It’s not easy to start.
Of course, Suiye Mansion is just a "registration place", and real business must be handled through financial institutions nominally owned by the Ruba Banner, such as the Bank of Qing Dynasty and the Bank of Mongolia. These financial institutions will be opened in every big city in Europe and India with the support of Freemasonry! It will also manage huge funds from the East to carry out various operations in Europe.
"Your Majesty," Queen Mother Kong was still a little worried, "Europeans are not fools. Even if they don't know that you are buying their land or real estate for a while, they will eventually notice it as time goes by, and they will really fall out with each other. , maybe it will be confiscated?”
"Confiscated? Will it?" Zhu Heji thought to himself: "Aren't their private properties sacred and inviolable?"
"I'm not afraid!" Zhu Heji smiled and shook his head, "I'm not afraid of them confiscating it."
He is indeed not afraid!
Because what he wants to buy is not a single land, but a large amount of land in the Ruhr area, Luxembourg, Alsace and Lorraine...which are the most important coal and iron ore deposits in Western Europe. district!
Zhu Heji planned to spend a lot of money to buy more land there, and then use it to develop ecological agriculture. Just collect a few rents. He could also build some pastures, pig farms, wineries, and develop some projects in the name of the Eastern Royal Family. Specially supplying butter, ham, beer and salty pork knuckle industries in name...but absolutely no one is allowed to go prospecting or mining! You can't let people build any railways anywhere, that will destroy Feng Shui! If Feng Shui is bad, butter, ham, beer and salty pork knuckles will not taste good.
Of course, it is impossible to deny it all the time. As long as it takes decades or a hundred years, it will be worth it for Europeans to suffer a big loss in the golden age of the Industrial Revolution. As for confiscation... As long as it can slow down the pace of industrialization in Europe and let Ming take the lead, confiscate it!
They confiscated it so that the future Ming Empire could fight a world war with them. After the war, wouldn't they have to give it back?
